Insurance giant Legal & General is stumping up the money for a £35m cinema complex in York.

Above: CGI of the Vangarde development

Legal & General is funding Wrenbridge Sport and the City of York Council’s development of the Vangarde leisure scheme at in Monks Cross, York.

The £35m investment will build 13-screen Imax cinema as well as various restaurants and retail units.

The cinema complex forms part of the wider regeneration of the Vangarde development, which Wrenbridge Sport in a consortium with the City of York Council and Greenwich Leisure have been working on for the past four years.

The wider scheme also includes the construction of a new 8,000 seat stadium for York City FC and York Knights RCFC, a leisure complex community hub comprising sports hall, 25-metre swimming pool, gym, NHS facilities and outdoor artificial pitches, as well as further retail and restaurant units.

Wrenbridge Sport managing director Richard Arnold said: "Both Wrenbridge and our consultants have worked extensively to deliver this project for the City of York. The support of our wider team has enabled us to deliver one of the most complex projects we have ever been involved in.

"Now we will turn our attention to delivery and our contractor, the Buckingham Group, are already preparing to start construction with the aim of completion of the stadium in June 2019. At same time we will be building the cinema, leisure, retail and restaurants adjacent to the stadium. It really is a great project for the City of York.”